[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2319 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2319

           To establish a Mail-Order Pharmacy Pilot Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 15, 2007

Mr. Bilirakis introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
           To establish a Mail-Order Pharmacy Pilot Program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``TRICARE Mail-Order Pharmacy Pilot 
Program Act''.

SEC. 2. MAIL-ORDER PHARMACY PILOT PROGRAM.

    (a) Requirement.--The Secretary of Defense shall conduct a pilot 
program to educate and motivate beneficiaries to voluntarily increase 
their use of the TRICARE mail-order pharmacy.
    (b) Scope of Pilot Program.--The pilot program shall include at 
least 2,000 eligible beneficiaries in each TRICARE region, of whom at 
least 1,000 in each TRICARE region shall be enrolled in Medicare Part 
B. Beneficiaries chosen to participate in the pilot program should be 
those who have filled prescriptions for one or more maintenance 
medications in the TRICARE retail pharmacy system and who have not 
previously used the TRICARE mail-order pharmacy.
    (c) Duration of Pilot Program.--The pilot program shall begin no 
later than March 1, 2008, and shall continue for two years.
    (d) Administration of Pilot Program.--The Secretary shall consult 
with representatives of beneficiary associations in designing, 
executing, and evaluating the results of the pilot program, which 
shall, at a minimum--
            (1) offer mail-order medications within the TRICARE 
        formulary to pilot program participants at a beneficiary 
        copayment of zero;
            (2) provide each beneficiary chosen for the pilot program 
        an individual notification letter explaining the advantages to 
        the beneficiary in terms of the convenience of home delivery 
        and cost savings;
            (3) provide a personalized summary for each such 
        beneficiary indicating the savings such beneficiary personally 
        would have realized had the beneficiary used the mail-order 
        system for the specific medications such beneficiary was 
        prescribed during a previous 12-month period;
            (4) provide simplified application and instruction 
        guidelines and such other information as the Secretary deems 
        useful to facilitate the beneficiary's expedited use of the 
        mail-order pharmacy; and
            (5) survey beneficiaries selected for the pilot program to 
        determine members' understanding of and satisfaction with the 
        mail-order pharmacy program, the factors that motivated them to 
        use or not use the mail-order pharmacy program, the specific 
        reasons for any dissatisfaction with the mail-order pharmacy 
        program, the extent to which they found the Secretary's 
        instruction materials helpful, the extent to which they would 
        recommend other beneficiaries' use of such program, and 
        suggestions for ways to further increase beneficiaries' use of 
        the mail-order pharmacy.
    (e) Reports.--The Secretary shall provide reports to the Committees 
on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives on October 
1, 2008, April 1, 2009, and October 1, 2009, to include--
            (1) the extent to which beneficiaries selected for the 
        pilot program shifted their use between pharmacy venues;
            (2) the extent to which such behavior changes affected 
        pharmacy costs for the Department of Defense and the 
        beneficiaries, respectively;
            (3) summaries of beneficiary survey results, to the extent 
        they are available on the date of each report;
            (4) an assessment of the effect of reducing the mail-order 
        copay to zero on pharmacy program costs and the advisability of 
        expanding the pilot program initiative to include all eligible 
        beneficiaries; and
            (5) any other analysis, observations, and recommendations 
        the Secretary may deem appropriate.
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